Revelation 15:1-5, "And I saw another sign in heaven great and marvelous. Seven angels having the seven last plagues: for in them is filled up the wrath of God. And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God. And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvelous are thy works, Lord God Almighty: just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints. Who shall not fear thee, 0 Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before thee: for thy judgments are made manifest. And after that I looked, and behold, the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened."

Could we direct your eyes to that fifth verse again? “After that I looked, and behold, the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened." We want to deal with the thought of the open temple, and some steps necessary for the temple to be opened up. As we bring you into this and lay a foundation of what God has laid upon our hearts. There are some things we need to realize from God's eternal Word, to know what John says here, and what he's expressing to us. We must remember, (if we’d go back to the beginning) that John was on the Isle of Patmos and Christ appeared unto him and dictated seven letters to be sent to the seven churches. That covers the first three chapters of the Revelation. The fourth chapter, we find, when he finished the letters, John heard a voice as a trumpet saying to him, come up hither. And he was caught up to heaven in the spirit. Now, don't get excited about that--Paul was caught up to heaven in the spirit. The only difference between John and Paul was that Paul saw so many marvelous things that he was afraid to tell it. He said it wasn’t lawful to tell it, perhaps nobody would believe it, but John didn’t know any better than to just tell it. John saw the vision in heaven, and we want to say again, that's why we use charts. When God gave John the Revelation, He didn’t tell it as a story. He showed Him pictures and said, “Write what you see.” God gave John a panoramic view of the church, from the day of Pentecost when she was empowered and sent forth, showed forth all her enemies, and how she overcame them clear through to the end of time. So, when John began to talk about things that happened in heaven, such as war in heaven: remember, there never was war in heaven; John saw it in a vision. It was things he saw in heaven, (in the vision) that were to take place here on the earth. Therefore, when we begin to talk about something happening in heaven, remember, John is merely writing what he saw in the vision. Unless we get that straight in our mind, we’ll go out over the country---like so many people are; talking about things that happened in heaven.

There wasn’t anything happened in heaven---He saw the vision as he was caught up in the spirit into heaven---but it was something that was to take place in the reign of the church down here. When we begin to talk about John saying that, we say, the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven opened up---and we want to understand what He's talking about. John said after these things happened, I looked and behold (he was astonished) the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened. Now, know that in the Bible there are two testimonies, or two testaments. There were two testaments---and a temple built by each. God had Solomon build a temple and here in the New Testament there’s a New Testament Temple. Paul said in 2 Cor. the 11th chapter, he feared, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtility, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ, or the simplicity of the Gospel. There’s no need for all this confusion. There was an old covenant and there’s a new covenant---an old testament and a new testament. There was a literal Israel under the Old Testament and there is now, an Israel (spiritual) under the New Testament. There are two mountains---Paul said in Hebrews 12:22: We’re not come to Mt. Sinai where the law was given but we're come to Mt. Zion, the city of the living God, the New Jerusalem, the church of the Firstborn. Mt. Zion is the (spiritual) New Jerusalem.

SPIRITUAL JEWS

Now, if we’re of the New Testament, we have new Jews---Romans 2:28-29, Paul said, He’s not a Jew any longer, who is one outwardly, neither is his circumcision that of the flesh---but he is a Jew (now) who is one inwardly, whose circumcision is that of the heart, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. Now, we have new Jews. We have been circumcised with the circumcision without hands. Well, if we’re new Jews, we have to have a New Jerusalem to go to. New Jews cannot go back to the Old Jerusalem, so we’ve got a New Jerusalem. What is it? It is Mt. Zion, the city of God, the church of the firstborn. What is the church of the firstborn? Acts 20:28, The Church of God, which He purchased with His Own Blood.

Someone asks, “Don't you believe the Jews are going back to Jerusalem?” Just as fast as they can go---but we have to learn, what a Jew is, and which Jerusalem they’re going to. I mean no disrespect, but we must learn that God doesn’t care where the literal Jews are, a bit more than, where the Indians are. They (the literal Jews) had their opportunity. They must come now, not as a people, but as individuals---just as any other sinner and repent of their sin to ever be a part of the New Testament Israel. May God, help us to understand. So we find, Paul took the two mountains---Mt. Sinai (where the law was given) and he said you are not come there, but you are come to Mt. Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem: the church of the firstborn---the general assembly and church of the firstborn. And we want to tell you that those people who have already come “there” have never got off the earth yet. Now, he went on to say, Refuse not him that spoke from the earth, and spoke of the punishment that should come if we refused him that spoke from the earth, but now He speaketh from heaven. So, when we talk about the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven being opened up, we’re talking about the New Testament Church being opened up where people can see it. The expression of being opened up is nothing more than it being opened up before the minds of the people as something visible that you can see and come to. I’m sure you'll agree that in this day, in which we are living, the vision of the church is very obscure. But I thank God it can be opened up and people can see it. Do you think the New Testament Church is the temple? The Bible says it is.

In Eph. the 2nd chapter, the 19th verse, "Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household, of God: and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone: In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit." That’s just a spiritual temple. Well, let's look a little farther. We know it’s a spiritual house, but John said he saw it; it opened up before him.

But that temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven is the church over in heaven. No! Look in the Revelation, the 21st chapter, the 22nd verse, where John began to hit at the heavenly phase of the kingdom or the church, and he said he saw no temple therein. Why? Why didn't he see a temple therein in the heavenly phase? The temple or church is given here to keep us separate. God has always ordained his people be separate. The temple is here to keep us separate, but over in heaven John said he saw no temple therein. Why? We won't need to be kept separate because only the redeemed will be over there. But here we have many people that are coming under the name of religion and Christendom that are mixing right in, so God has to have a called out place, a temple, where He builds just true material together to make up the temple where they are separate from all other religious works and organizations---where men can see and understand.

THE CHURCH IS VISIBLE

When we begin to line this up and we begin to consider the steps necessary for the temple to be opened up where a man can see it---John said in this 5th verse, "And after that I looked," after what? After these other things had taken place. What are we going to have to have tonight for the church to be opened up where people can see it? Are we actually going to stand up here and preach and say the church is visible? That’s exactly what we’re going to do. It’s been an “invisible something” too long. There are Brethren running around and talking about it being an invisible something. Well, if it’s an invisible church, it has invisible elders. They can never anoint you with oil and lay their hands on you. The church is very visible when certain conditions are met, and as these conditions were met before John, it became visible right before his eyes. He could see her, not that he had not seen her before. No, he saw the church in the morning time; he was part of it. He preached it, he wrote about it, but he saw it in the vision opened right up before his eyes in all visible clearness, when certain conditions were met. "And after that I looked, and, behold, the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened:" Now what are the necessary steps? Well, here in this 15th chapter of the Revelation, verse 2: The first thing necessary for the temple to be opened up where men can see it, is the sea of glass mingled with fire. The sea of glass is a symbolic expression of God's Word, Old Testament or New. We like to answer all the symbols in the Word of God, unless we use some history to prove the period of time, but the symbols are answered, right in God's Word.

Again, the first thing we have to have, is a sea of glass mingled with fire. This is a symbol of God's eternal Word, under the anointing of the Holy Spirit. The fire is the Holy Spirit. Where did we get that “glass part”? 2 Cor., “We with open face beholding as in a glass (as we look in God's Word beholding the Glory of God) are changed into THAT SAME image from glory to glory.” James 1:25, said the Word of God is like a mirror, a looking-glass that men look into and see themselves. Go back in Exodus the 38th chapter, in the Old Testament temple, or tabernacle, and there the sea of glass--what was it? It was the laver, which was a type of the washing of regeneration by the Word of God. So, if we ever have the church opened up or the temple opened up where people can see it, something is visible.

Once again, one of the first things necessary, is that we’re going to have to have the Word of God, preached under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, a sea of glass mingled with fire. That means something! In the 21st chapter of the Revelation, when it was describing the church, (not heaven) the Lamb's wife, the bride, the church: it said her light was as clear as crystal. That will take some clear preaching! Right here, is where the first snag got in the wheel. We believe there’s not clear enough preaching on the church. The preaching has not been crystal clear! When it talked about a sea of glass mingled with fire it meant it was preached so clear under the anointing of the Holy Spirit that people could look right into it. That’s what brings the clearness. Her light was as clear as crystal. Just what I said in the beginning...there’s one thing keeping us from preaching a clearer light, we’re afraid of repetition. We take too many things for granted---that people see things when they don’t see them. We need to listen to the Holy Spirit. If He says preach It over, we should preach it over. And if he says preach it over again, then preach it over again.

The sea of Glass is the truth preached clear---crystal clear, where people can see the church in the Bible. They have to see within the Bible, there’s only one church---that Jesus only built one church. In the midst of all this confusion in “Christian America”, (supposed to be) where the billboards are painted with "Go to the Church of Your Choice"! We need to learn about the one of God's choice, because He’s not coming back after the Church of our choice---He’s coming back after the Church of His choice!

It’s going to take some old time Holy Ghost preaching---and it will not be a thirteen minute essay. We have a job on our hands---to take people who are in confusion and blinded and got everything else on their minds, but the church. And the truth of the matter---it takes preaching and clear preaching. First of all, to take away that which they have, and show them it’s not truth. Then, after you’ve emptied their minds, then, you have to lay the real thing in there, and tell them what truth is---and that’s quite a job. Sermonettes are for christianettes. So, it’s going to take the Word of God preached crystal clear. [ The End ]